


Say Something

by TheNerdyTurtle96



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Breakups, F/M, Just ALL THE ANGST, Oneshot, Shipping, Songfic, Teen for some swearing, Thats just how I’m vibing right now, but Minecraft personas only, no comfort, sorry :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26381329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNerdyTurtle96/pseuds/TheNerdyTurtle96
Summary: Iskall has good friends, a lovely girlfriend, and a great life on Hermitcraft. Insert author in angsty mood and sad song.Song fic for “Say Something” by A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera.
Relationships: Iskall85/StressMonster101, Stressmonster101/Rendog
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Say Something

**Author's Note:**

> BEWARE OF THE ANGST! The song is by A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera, but I much prefer the Pentatonix version, even though the lyrics aren’t quite the same at the end. I used he/him pronouns for Iskall because it’s really hard to write with they/them pronouns and clearly distinguish between groups of people and a singular person. Also, this is my first songfic. Please let me know how I did and what I can improve on in the future.

_ Say something, I’m giving up on you _

_ I’ll be the one if you want me to _

_ Anywhere I would have followed you _

_ Say something, I’m giving up on you _

Birds hiding in the jungle trees chirped a peaceful melody and Iskall whistled back at them. It was kind of silly, but the song of the birds made him want to contribute as well while he waited for Stress to come out of her base. Glancing down at his communicator, Iskall checked once again that he was in the right spot. Several minutes had passed since Stress had asked him to come over for a chat. It was quite normal for her to lose track of time, but a small part in the back of Iskall’s head wondered if she was okay. That voice was quickly shut up as noises came from nearby and Stress popped out from behind a wall a few moments later.

She was wearing an oversized, pastel-pink hoodie and old, black leggings with oodles of cat hair clinging to it, but she looked just as gorgeous as ever in Iskall’s eyes. The two of them had been dating for 9 months and he was falling more in love with her every day. He really couldn’t help it when her chocolate brown eyes sparkled so brightly every time she smiled and her laugh was just as full and contagious as Iskall’s own. 

“Hey,” was all her tired and scratchy voice could get out. Nevertheless, Iskall smiled warmly back.

“Hey gorgeous. What’s up?” Her expression flickered for the briefest of seconds to pain, but Stress quickly regained her composure and pulled together a friendly smile.

“Well, I kind of wanted to chat.”

“Okay,” Iskall replied with a twinge of excitement in his voice. Obviously, something was weighing on Stress, but he didn’t want to sound like he didn’t want to listen to her.

“This is hard,” Stress sighed, shifting her gaze to the floor and shuffling her feet absent-mindedly. “But I don’t think this is going to work anymore.”

“W-what?” Iskall was partially confused about what exactly she was talking about and mostly panicking about what he really hoped she wasn’t saying.

“Us,” she whispered, avoiding any eye contact with the shocked Iskall. “I mean, you’re really nice and wonderful and all, but I don’t think that dating is going to work.”

“I-I… Did I do something?” The cyborg was struggling to process the situation, much less come up with a coherent response.

“No, it’s not you,” Stress quickly replied, her voice quavering. “It’s just… I don’t know. I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry.”

Several tense moments passed before Stress pulled some rockets out of her pack and double-checked the straps on her elytra.

“I’m really sorry. I… I need to go.”

With that, Iskall watched as the love of his life flew away from him and out of sight. 

_ And I am feeling so small _

_ It was over my head _

_ I know nothing at all _

__ Finally, the gravity of the short conversation that had just taken place sank in for Iskall and his head began to swim. His legs gave out on him and he crumpled to his knees, tears quickly forming in his eyes. In the space of a singular minute, his beloved girlfriend, the one who brought him so much joy and light, had ended their long-standing relationship. Iskall tried hard not to blame her, but without knowing what was really going on, it was so hard to not.

Many explanations cycled through his head, some more realistic than others. Maybe Stress just needed a short break and then she would come back. Perhaps he hadn’t been doing enough for her and it had been too hard for her to tell Iskall what she needed. What if she had been cheating on him and chose the other person? That one he didn’t have a lot of evidence for, so he tried to keep that out of his head. The one thought that kept coming up was even more depressing than the thought of her cheating, though.  _ Did she ever actually love me? _ , he constantly wondered.

__ At some point, Xisuma came by the outside of Stress’ base where Iskall was crying and curled up in an uncomfortable ball. The cyborg didn’t know exactly why the admin had come by, but Xisuma seemed to know what Iskall needed. Kneeling down next to Iskall, the other man comfortingly rubbed small circles into his back as sobs racked his body. Eventually, Xisuma teleported the two of them out to his admin console room and gently helped the exhausted Iskall into a warm bed. Then, the admin gave him the space to mourn while still keeping watch as the cyborg slowly drifted off to a miserable, dream-plagued sleep.

_ And I will stumble and fall _

_ I'm still learning to love _

_ Just starting to crawl _

__ It had been a week since Stress broke up with Iskall and he was still hurting. After that first night, Xisuma had gently asked what was wrong and Iskall had spilled a lot of feelings out to the admin. Patiently and without judgement, Xisuma listened to everything and by the time the cyborg left to go back to his own base, the hole in his heart wasn’t quite as large. He had been working in his tree for the whole week to avoid seeing Stress, but he was now somewhat confident that he could handle a simple passing by. Plus, he really needed more supplies from the shopping district. What were the chances of her being there at the exact same time? 

__ Iskall took a deep breath as he stepped through the Nether portal to the shopping district and out into the road in front of the town hall. Glancing around, he didn’t see Stress anywhere.  _ So far, so good,  _ he thought. A little spring worked its way into his step as he walked down the streets of the shopping district. Scar was busy at work marking out new roads and Iskall waved at the mayor. Cheerfully, Scar waved back before focusing on his work once again. The small interaction gave Iskall another confidence boost as he continued to make his way up to the chest monster shop. A little birdie had told him that there was a sale going on and sales were always good.

Even though he had dropped his guard a bit, Iskall still cautiously scanned around him, which was how he found her. Ducking behind a shop, the cyborg tried to collect his thoughts and slow his pounding heart as his body jerked into fight-or-flight mode.  _ One, two, three, four, five, _ he counted in his head before looking out at the street again. Stress was still there, as well as another figure. The two of them were casually holding hands and… laughing? Her signature, bubbly laugh was impossible to miss and it tore at Iskall’s heart to hear it once again. The other person said something to Stress and kissed her cheek. He couldn’t make out anything they were saying, but the numb feeling spread nonetheless as he realized what was going on. 

It didn’t matter whether she had been cheating or if she had just moved on so quickly; that wasn’t what Iskall was concerned with. Rather, it was the very familiar face of the other person, which revealed itself as they turned to go down a different street, still holding hands with Stress. A red shirt, the sunglasses, the sparkling blue eyes: they all forced the horrible truth on Iskall, shattering his walls of denial. 

_ Ren? What the hell?!? _

Tears welling up in his eyes, the cyborg hurried out of the shopping district as fast as he could. Oh, betrayal was such a bitter feeling.

_ Say something, I'm giving up on you _

_ I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you _

_ Anywhere, I would've followed you _

_ Say something, I'm giving up on you _

__ Squeezing his eyes closed, Iskall attempted to cool his bubbling emotions before leaping off of his tree branches and firing one rocket. It wasn’t far in between Iskall’s Omega Tree of Doom and the Valley of Tatooren, so Iskall was able to glide most of the way. Sticking a gentle landing on the surface of the mesa, he took a brief moment to admire the massive progress made in the area before making his way to the hut that Ren stored most of his stuff in. The door was missing, most likely due to a certain jungle bandit, so Iskall could easily see Ren inside, studying some maps on the wall.

“Ren?” The cyborg took in a deep breath and tried to keep calm as he called out for his friend. Soon, the other man turned around with a huge smile on his face.

“Oh, hey Iskall! Nice to see you, my dude!” 

“We need to talk.” Iskall gritted his teeth to prevent himself from screaming at Ren.

“I’d be happy to!” Ren plopped down on a shulker box and gestured for Iskall to sit as well. “What’s up?”

“Are you dating Stress?” The blurted question forced its way out of Iskall with a trace of venom.

“Um, well, yes,” Ren confessed. In an instant, his bright smile had faded to something more sheepish.

“For how long?” Iskall pressed on.

“What do you mean?” Ren scrunched up his eyebrows a bit and the cyborg tried not to snap at him too much.

“How long has she been flirting with you?” It still came out as fairly confrontational, which hardened Ren’s expression to be more annoyed.

“Well, it’s Stress. I can’t really tell what’s flirting and what’s just friendly-.”

“Ren, listen to me. How long have you two been dating?” Iskall interrupted, as he was getting tired of his friend playing dumb.

“Uh, I asked her out a few days ago.” The corners of Ren’s mouth perked up at that.

“Did you just make it official then or were you having an affair with her?” The cyborg accused.

“W-what?” Ren’s shocked expression made it clear that he hadn’t been expecting that question.

“Dude, she broke up with me a week ago! Have you guys already been together behind my back? Because that’s a pretty sh-”

“That’s a very strong accusation, Iskall,” Ren cut off the end of the swear in a stern tone.

“Well, considering that she said yes to  _ you _ only a few days after dumping  _ me _ , I’m thinking that something’s been going on for a while now.” Iskall’s self-control was quickly slipping away and his underlying feelings of frustration and betrayal were starting to show themselves.

“Even if I said no, would you believe me?”

“So you’re saying that you did?” The cyborg latched onto Ren’s statement and twisted it, picking out the words that resonated the most and focusing his entire mind on them.

“See, you can’t think rationally like this. Right now, you have too many emotions-”

“I have a freaking reason for them, you idiot! I’m pretty sure that Stress was cheating on me with you. You, of all people!” Iskall took a step closer to Ren and got right in the other man’s face. “You were my friend! I TRUSTED you! And this is what I get?”

“And you come here and accuse me of all this stuff without evidence! That’s not cool, dude!” Finally, Ren snapped as well and his calm demeanor melted away.

“Yeah, well so is having an affair with my girlfriend!”

“You aren’t dating her anymore! She’s not exclusively yours. She can make her own decisions,” Ren asserted, a tight-lipped frown on his face.

“You let her! You could have said no! But no, you said yes and you knew that she was dating me!” Iskall’s hands were gesturing wildly as his tone became more exasperated and broken.

“Why are you automatically assuming that we were having a relationship before last week?” Ren cried, sounding exhausted already from illogically debating Iskall.

“Even if you weren’t, you literally asked her out a couple of days after we broke up. I don’t even know why she dumped me, but only a week later, I see her flirting with you! Why?!?” The last statement was more of a cry of pain than anything else. Desperation flooded Iskall’s eyes as he glared back at Ren. “Why would you do this to me?”

“Iskall, I’m not going to keep debating this,” the other man stoically responded.

“Stop deflecting my questions, dammit! If you don’t want to talk to me, just tell me!” Something in Iskall shattered as he made his final plea.

“Fine, I don’t want to talk to you!” Ren threw up his hands.

“Well, I don’t want to, either.”

“Then leave. Goodbye.” Ren coldly pointed to the door.

“I hate you.” With that, Iskall stormed out of the hut and took off into the sky, flying fast and far away from the new disaster he had just created.

_ And I will swallow my pride _

_ You're the one that I love _

_ And I'm saying goodbye _

After Iskall’s huge argument with Ren, he had retreated back to the Omega Tree of Doom and threw all of his energy into building up his base. It got lonely sometimes with all of his neighbors either gone on vacation or avoiding him, but that was fine. He reckoned that he would probably end up destroying his friendship with whomever visited next anyway. That was why a familiar voice calling out from a few feet away while he was placing down some staircases scared the crap out of him.

“Iskall?” Spinning around, the familiar voice matched with a familiar person that Iskall was not eager to see at the moment.

“Stress? What are you doing here?” She shuffled her feet and offered a slight smile.

“I just wanted to talk for a bit,” Stress quietly answered.

“Last time we talked, you dumped me. What are you going to do to me now?” Iskall crossed his arms and shifted his weight to one foot to assume a more intimidating pose.

“Listen,” Stress sighed. “I heard about your argument with Ren.”

“Who hasn’t,” Iskall rolled his eyes.

“Actually, everyone has by now. You two weren’t exactly being quiet.” From the way Stress said it, Iskall could tell that she unfortunately wasn’t kidding. News and gossip spread fast around the community of hermits and stuff like this moved quicker than wildfires.

“So what’s your point?”

“Well, he was saying that you were accusing him of having an affair with me.” She looked down at her feet as her smile faded away. “And I wanted to clear some things up.”

“Did you or didn’t you?” Iskall blurted.

“Iskall,” Stress took a deep breath. “Do you want me to come back later when you’re not like this?”

“What do you mean ‘when you’re not like this’?” The cyborg made dramatic air quotes with his fingers as he narrowed his eyes at his exasperated ex-girlfriend.

“You know, all of your emotions locked up and being sarcastic and snarky through the roof,” Stress explained with oversized hand motions to accompany it.

“So why can’t we talk?” Iskall glared at Stress, who tried incredibly hard, but ultimately failed, to resist lightly hitting her head on the wall.

“Why can’t you see the problem here, love?”

“Oh, so did you come back to beg for me to love you again? Because the answer is-”

“OH MY GOD!” Stress screeched. “I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS!”

Iskall reeled back slightly, as he hadn’t heard her get this frustrated in quite a while. She closed her eyes, took three deep breaths, and turned back to Iskall with annoyance clearly showing in her expression.

“Iskall, I’m going to come back later because you are being a jerk right now and you’re in complete denial about it. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” he coldly responded. With that, Stress shot up into the sky and far away from Iskall, whose brain was slowly catching up with the conversation that had just taken place. Part of his mind was still in the mindset of “good riddance”, but most of his thoughts were shifting towards, “oh my god, I’m such an idiot.” Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could do about it. The only thing he  _ could _ do, it seemed, was violently push away his friends.

_ Say something, I'm giving up on you _

_ And I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you _

_ And anywhere, I would have followed you _

_ Oh, oh, oh, oh say something, I'm giving up on you _

_ Say something, I'm giving up on you _

_ Say something _

__ The darkness of the night covered everything that wasn’t lit up like a blanket and it wrapped Iskall up tightly. The cyborg laid in his bed all night, tossing and turning. Nothing worked for him to be able to sleep and there wasn’t really anything else to do. The only hermits still awake were Stress, Ren and Tango (who was incredibly busy), so chatting with other people wasn’t an option. He hadn’t slept for a few days, making the thought of leaving his bed and getting back to work rather unappealing. Iskall ended up giving up on sleep for another night and watched videos on his communicator for several hours. His heart wasn’t really into it, though, as most of his mental energy was being spent replaying his conversations with Stress and Ren.

_ “It’s just… I don’t know. I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry.” _

__ _ “Even if I said no, would you believe me?” _

_ “See, you can’t think rationally like this. Right now, you have too many emotions-” _

_ “You were my friend! I TRUSTED you! And this is what I get?” _

_ “Fine, I don’t want to talk to you!” _

_ “I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS!” _

_ “Then leave. Goodbye.” _

_ “Goodbye.” _

Over and over, the words spun themselves around in his head like laundry in a dryer. Finally, at 6 AM, noticing that Stress was still awake, Iskall got desperate enough to message her.

**Private Conversation: iskall85 and Stressmonster101**

**< iskall85> 6:03 AM: ** Hey Stress?

**< iskall85> 6:05 AM: ** I want to talk

**< iskall85> 6:08 AM: ** I’m sorry for being such a jerk

**< iskall85> 6:09 AM: ** I shouldn’t have been mean to you like that

**< iskall85> 6:32 AM: ** Stress?

**< iskall85> 7:14 AM: ** Are you ignoring me?

**< iskall85> 7:59 AM: ** Hello?

**< iskall85> 8:34 AM: ** Please?

**< iskall85> 9:42 AM: ** Say something?

**Author's Note:**

> This got long, but I’m happy with it. Have a great day!


End file.
